Irish speaking peasantry as Sgeulla fiannuigheachta, stories | the reader is referred. It was this account which suggested. of the Fians or Fennians. The word Fianna is glossed in calling the members of an organization that was formed a an Irish MS. by feinneda, champions, that is, of the king of few years ago among the Irish in the United States of Eire. Instead of Fian, Fianna, we have also the words in America for promoting and assisting revolutionary movethe oblique case feinn, feinne, from whence has come the ments in Ireland, and which attained much notoriety, English form Fenian. The stories are sometimes also Fenians (see IRELAND). The founder of the modern called Ossianic, from a corrupt form of the name of a Fenians, John O'Mahony, was also the author of a translaFenian poet and warrior named Oísin, the Ossian of Mac- tion of Keating's History, which he published in New York pherson; but though properly applicable to poems, the in the year 1857. term cannot be applied to prose tales. According to popular tradition the Fians, or Fenians, were mercenary tribes acting as a permanent military force for the support of the Ard Rig, or king of Eire. They are supposed to have been instituted by a prehistoric king, Fiachadh, the father of the above-named Tuathal, or his brother according to another account, and to have enjoyed great power for about 150 years, until, some of them having taken part with the king of Leinster against the king of Eire, they nearly annihilated each other in the battle of Gabhra, which is perhaps only another way of saying that the king, jealous of their power, broke up the organization. The term Fian continued, however, to be sometimes applied by the poets to the Amos, or mercenary troops, which the provincial kings, as well as the king of Eire, kept about them. In later times poets even used it in the general sense of soldiers, hence the use of such expressions as "Fians of Alba," "Fians of Breatan," &c. As the Irish princes had an opportunity of learning something of the Roman military system .in Britain,-Tacitus (Agr., xxiv.) mentions that one was in the camp of Agricola,-there is nothing improbable in the Scotic or Milesian kings imitating it so far as to assign constant military duty to certain clans. One of the glosses on the word Fianna explains it as fineadha, because it was in Fines, septs, they were formed. | The Leinster and Meath Fenians, consisting of the Clanna Baiscné, from a stemfather Bascné, are said to have been Damnonians of the subjugated tribes of the Gaileoin settled in Meath and East Leinster, one of which was the Tuath Aithechta above mentioned. The Gailevins figure in the Táin bo Cuailnge, a celebrated tale of the older or Heroic cycle of Irish romance, as the Leinster contingent of Ailill, the husband of Queen Medb, the heroine of the tale. The Connaught Fenians, the Clanna Morna, so called from a stemfather Morn, were also a servile tribe, the Tuath Domnann, settled in Erris in the west of Mayo. Ferdiad son of Daman, whose combat with Cúchulaind forms the finest episode of the Táin bo Cuailnge, was of this tribe. The Clanna Degaid or Munster Fenians were also probably one of the subjugated tribes. Curoi son of Dare, a celebrated hero of the older or Heroic period, seems to have been of this race. It is worthy of note that Ulster, whose warriors of the Craebh Ruaid or Red Branch are the most prominent figures in the Heroic period, had no Fenians. The genealogists of later times, desirous of making every warrior, poet, and saint a Milesian, provided elaborate Milesian pedigrees for the Clanna Baiscné, to which belonged the chief hero of the Fenian period, Deime, sur named Finn, or Find, son of Cumall son of Trenmor; Find's sons Oisin and Fergus Finnbheoil, Oscar son of Orsin, Caoilté son of Ronan, and many others. His great rival Aedh, called Goll (the one-eyed) Mac Morna, Conan Mac Morna grandson of Goll, and the other warriors of the Clanna Morna or Connaught Fenians, continued to be regarded as Firbolgs. The Irish MSS. contain no account of the organization or distribution of the Fenians, except what can be gathered from incidental references; but Dr Keating, who appears to have had access to many MSS. since lost, and who may be trusted to tell only what he found in them, gives in his History of Ireland a curious legendary account to which Conn of the Hundred Battles, Art the son of Conn, Cormac son of Art, and Cairbre son of Cormac, the chief kings of the Fenian period, Find son of Cumall, and his son Oisin, and some others of the chief heroes, are doubtless real personages. But even in the oldest manuscripts they are so mixed up with mythological beings that it is impossible to sift fact from fiction. Thus in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri, the oldest existing MS. written wholly in Irish, sometime before the year 1106, there is a story concerning a certain king Mongan the subject of many legends, who is supposed to have flourished at the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh century, which makes him out to be no other than the celebrated Find son of Cumall himself. The Fenian stories are merely Celtic myths in a new dress, clothing a few misty forms of real life, about whom we know almost nothing. As has been stated in the article CELTIC LITERATURE, the personages of the Heroic period, Cúchulaind, Fergus son of Rog, Conal Cernach, Laegaire Buadach, Catbad the Druid, Queen Medb, Ferdiad son of Daman, &c., are never associated in any genuine tale with those of the Fennian or Fenian period, such as Find son of Cumall, Oisin, Oscar, Diarmait, Caoilté Mac Ronain, Goll Mac Morna, &c. The recitation of Fennian stories in the halls of kings and chieftains, and in popular assemblies by the Fili, was usual in the 12th century, as we learn from a poem on the triennial Aonech, or fair of Carman, now Wexford, in the Book of Leinster, a manuscript of that time. This manuscript also contains poems attributed to Find himself, and to his son Oisin, and most of the poems and prose tales coining under the head Fennian, or Fenian, and now or recently current among the Irish-speaking peasantry, are also to be found in MSS. at least 300 years old. As might be expected from the common origin of the Irish and Gaelic population of Scotland, and the close intellectual association between them for centuries, owing to the literary language of both being the same, and to the additional circumstance that the Irish poets, harpers, and leeches looked upon Celtic Scotland quite as much within their domain as any part of Ireland, Fennian poems and tales were as well known in the former as in the latter. The written stories when old are in the literary language, that is Irish, and do not differ from those found in similar MSS. in Ireland. The current stories are of course in the Gaelic dialect of Scotland, which has gradually supplanted Irish as the literary language since the literary separation of Ireland and Scotland, caused by the Reformation and the decay of the Irish language in Ireland itself. It was such stories, written in the literary language or Irish, and others still current among the Gaelic-speaking population of the Highlands, that suggested to James Macpherson the subjects of his poems of Ossian, and supplied him with a considerable part of the materials. In using these materials he mingled the events and the actors of the two perfectly distinct periods of story, that of Cúchulaind, or the Heroic period, and that of Find, or the Fennian period. Macpherson was not, however, the first who was guilty of this, anachronism; in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, transcribed in the first half of the 16th century, there is a sort of mosaic poem made up apparently of fragments of totally different stories belonging to both periods, and having lines interpolated to link the fragments. It is a rude example of what Macpherson did so well 200 years after. The first part appears to be a fragment of a version of the Seirgligi Conculaind, or Sick Bed of Cúchulaind, into which are introduced references to the Fians; then follows a fragment concerning the death of Conlaech son of Cúchulaind; this is followed by a fragment about the battle of Cnuca, in which Cumall, son of Trenmor and father of Find, was slain by Goll son of Morn. Bibliography-Keating's History of Ireland, John O'Mahony's translation, New York, 1857; O'Curry's Lectures on the MS. Materials of Irish History, and on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, and his Battle of Magh Leana, published by the Celtic Society; the Dean of Lismore's Book; J. F. Campbell of Islay's Leabhar na Feinne, and his Popular Tales of the West Highlands; Transactions of the Ossianiac Society. See also Bibliography of CELTIC Literature, vol. v. p. 327. (W. K. S.) FENNEL (Foeniculum), a genus of umbelliferous plants, having umbels compound, and without involucres; petals yellow, entire, roundish, and incurved at the tip; and fruit a laterally compressed cremocarp, with achene 5-ridged, a large, single vitta under each furrow, and albumen planoconvex. (See BOTANY, vol. iv. p. 150, fig. 292; and p. 151, fig. 299.) Common Fennel, F. vulgare, Gärtn. (Anethum Foeniculum, L.), to which the other forms of fennel are generally referred, is a perennial from 2 to 3 or, when cultivated, 4 feet in height, having leaves three or four times pinnate, with numerous linear or awl-shaped segments, and umbels glaucous, and of about 15 or 20 rays. The plant appears to be of South European origin, but is now met with in various parts of Britain and the rest of temperate Europe, and in the west of Asia. The fruits have an aromatic taste and odour, and are used for the preparation of oil of fennel and fennel water, valued for their stimulant and carminative properties. The fruits and edible shoots of fennel were eaten by the ancient Romans. The fennel seeds of commerce are of several sorts. Sweet or Roman Fennel seeds are the produce of a tall perennial plant, with umbels of 25-30 rays, which is cultivated near Nismes in the south of France; they are elliptical and arched in form, about inch long and a quarter as broad, and are smooth externally, and of a colour approaching a pale green. Shorter and straighter fruits are obtained from the annual variety of F. vulgare known as F. Panmorium (Panmuhuri) or Indian Fennel, and are employed in India in curries, and for medicinal purposes... Other kinds are the German or Saxon fruits, brownish-green in colour, and between and inch in length, and the broader but smaller fruits of the Wild or Bitter Fennel of the south of France. A variety of fennel, F. dulce, having the stem compressed at the base, and the umbel 6-8 rayed, is grown in kitchen-gardens for the sake of its leaves. Giant Fennel is the name applied to the plant Ferula communis, common in Sicily, where the pith of the stem is used as tinder. Hog's or Sow Fennel is the species Peucedanum officinale. FENTON, ELIJAH (1683-1730), an English poet, was born at Shelton near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, 20th May 1683. He entered Jesus College, Cambridge, with the view of studying for the church, but afterwards declined to take orders, and on leaving the university he accompanied the earl of Orrery to Flanders in the capacity of private secretary. On the return of the earl to England in 1705, Fenton became assistant in a school at Headley, in Surrey, and was soon afterwards appointed master of the free grammar-school at Sevenoaks in Kent. In 1710 he was induced by the promise of a political appointment from Lord Bolingbroke to resign his mastership, but a change in the Government led to the disappointment 1 The Dean of Lismore's Book, ed. by Rev. T. M'Lauchlan and W. F. Skene, Edinburgh, 1862, p. 88 (translation), 64 (text). of his hopes. He was, however, not long afterwards appointed tutor to Lord Broghill, only son of the earl of Orrery; and when this engagement expired, he was, on the recommendation of Pope, employed to give private literary instructions to Mr Craggs, secretary of state. His next engagement was with Pope himself, whom he assisted in translating the Odyssey. The first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books are ascribed to Fenton. In 1717 he published a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, and in 1723 his tragedy of Marianne was brought out, and was performed with such success that the author's profits are said to have amounted to nearly a thousand pounds. The poetical merit of this tragedy is considerable; but the diction is too figurative and ornate for a dramatic composition, and accordingly it has not retained its place on the stage. In 1727 Fenton superintended a new edition of Milton's Poems, to which he prefixed a life, and in 1729 he published a splendid edition of Waller, with notes. During the latter part of his life he was employed by Lady Trumbull, first as tutor to her son, and afterwards as auditor of her accounts. He died at East Hampstead, Berkshire, on the 13th of July 1730, and was interred in the parish church, where his tomb has inscribed on it an epitaph written by Pope. See Johnson's Lives of the Poets; Boyle's edition of Pope; and The Gentleman's Magazine, lxi., lxiv. FENTON, SIR GEOFFREY, a writer and statesinan during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., the brother of Edward Fenton the navigator, who accompanied Sir Martin Frobisher in his expeditions, and was afterwards sent out independently to endeavour to discover a north-west passage. In the capacity of queen's counsellor Sir Geoffrey served for twenty-seven years in Ireland, where his conduct appears to have given great satisfaction to his royal mistress, notwithstanding that he took every opportunity of impressing on her mind the strong conviction he entertained that the safety and glory of her government in that island depended on her subjects enjoying the protection of equal laws. He died at Dublin, October 19, 1606. Fenton is best known for his translation of the History of the Wars of Italy by Guicciardini, which he dedicated to Elizabeth. Of his other translations the principal are Certain Tragical Discontaining a variety of Discourses, both Moral, Philosophical, and courses written out of French and Latin, 1567, and Golden Epistles, Divine, gathered as well out of the remainder of Guevara's works as other authors, Latin, French, and Italian, 1577. The Familiar Epistles of Guevara had been published in English by Edward Fellowes in 1574; Fenton's collection consists of pieces not contained in that publication. FENUGREEK (Trigonella), a genus of leguminous herbs very similar in habit and in most of their characters to the species of the genus Medicago. The leaves are formed of three obovate leaflets, the middle one of which is stalked; the flowers are solitary or in clusters of two or three, and have a campanulate, 5-cleft calyx; and the pods are many. seeded, cylindrical or flattened, and straight or only slightly curved. The fenugreeks or trigonels are widely diffused over the south of Europe, West and Central Asia, and the north of Africa, and are represented also by several species in Australia. Common Fenugreek, T. Foenum-græcum, so called from the name given to it by the ancients, who used it as fodder for cattle, is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, and is cultivated to some extent in Thuringia, Moravia, and other parts of Europe, and in Morocco, and largely in Egypt and in India. It bears a sickle-shaped pod, containing from 10 to 20 seeds, from which-6 per cent. of a fetid, fatty, and bitter oil can be extracted by ether. In India the fresh plant is employed as an esculent. The seed is an ingredient in curry powders, and is used for flavouring cattle foods. It was formerly much esteemed as a medicine, and is still in repute in veterinary practice. FEOFFMENT, in English law, was the form of granting | or conveying a freehold or fee. One of its essential elements was livery of seisin (delivery of possession), which consisted in formally giving to the feoffee on the land a clod or turf, or a growing twig, as a symbol of the transfer of the land. This was called livery in deed. Livery in law was made not on but in sight of this land, the feoffer saying to the feoffee, "I give you that land; enter and take possession." By the 8 and 9 Vict. c. 106 feoffments were rendered unnecessary and superfluous. All corporeal hereditaments were by that Act declared to be in grant as well as livery, i.e., they could be granted by deed without livery. And feoffments were in general required to be evidenced by deed. 2 FERDINAND. The name of Ferdinand (the Italian Ferdinando or Ferrante, Spanish Fernando or Hernando, Arabian Ferdeland), which is supposed to be of Gothic origin and to be allied to the German verdienend (meritorious), has been borne by a considerable number of European sovereigns, the more important of whom are noticed below in the following order-first, the emperors, and then the kings of Naples, Portugal, and Spain, the grand-dukes of Tuscany, and the duke of Brunswick. FERDINAND I. (1503-1564), emperor, was the son of Philip of Austria and Joanna daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and was born at Alcala in Spain 10th March 1503. In 1521 he married princess Anna of Hungary, and on the death in 1526 of her only brother the boy-king Louis of Bohemia and Hungary he was elected king of Bohemia, but in Hungary his claims were opposed by John Zapolya, palatine of Transylvania. Zapolya suffered a severe defeat from the imperial troops near Tokay; but after receiving the aid of the Turks he managed to carry on the struggle with varying success until 1538, when the exhausted resources of both rival parties led to a compromise, by which it was agreed that a half of the kingdom should be assigned to each, and that on the death of John the half over which he ruled should revert to Ferdinand. But on the death of John in 1540 the Turks supported the cause of his infant son John Sigismund, and in 1547 Ferdinand was compelled to purchase peace at the price of a yearly tribute. The war was again renewed in 1552, and at its termination the Turks were allowed to retain possession of a part of Hungary in trust for Sigismund. In 1521 Ferdinand had been chosen president of the council of regency appointed to govern Germany during the absence in Spain of his brother the emperor Charles V., and in 1531 he was, through the influence of his brother, elected king of the Romans, in which capacity he acted the part of mediator between the emperor and the German princes, and in 1552 negotiated a treaty between him and the elector Maurice of Saxony. On the abdication of Charles in 1556 Ferdinand was elected emperor. Pope Paul IV. refused ecclesiastical recognition to the election on the ground that it was made without the consent of the papal see, but happily Paul died before the dispute had time to lead to serious consequences, and his successor Pius IV. avoided an open rupture by recognizing its validity on condition that Ferdinand should not observe the treaty of Augsburg. Ferdinand during his short reign showed himself an able, just, and enlightened ruler. ganized the aulic council, effected a reform in the monetary system of Germany, and exerted himself to bring about a reconciliation between his Protestant and Roman Catholic subjects. To effect this he endeavoured on the one hand to obtain from the pope various concessions to the Protestants, among others permission for the laity to use the cup at the communion, and liberty of marriage for the priests; and on the other hand he sought to persuade the Protestants to send deputies to the council of Trent; He reor The but his death, 25th July 1564, prevented these negotiations having a satisfactory termination. See Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands I., 9 vols., Vienna, 1831-38. FERDINAND IL (1578-1637), emperor, was the grandson of the preceding and the son of Charles duke of Styria and of Mary of Bavaria, and was born at Giatz, 9th July 1578. He was educated by the Jesuits, and having imbibed strong anti-Protestant sentiments is said to have taken a solemn yow before the altar that, on receiving the imperial crown, promised him by his cousin Matthias II., he would at whatever cost re-establish the Roman Catholic religion throughout all his states. In 1618 Matthias abdicated the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary in his favour, and on the death of Matthias in 1619 he laid claim to the imperial crown. His keen Roman Catholic sympathies, allied to a character gloomy, fanatical, and cruel, had already led him to disregard the guarantees of toleration by which his election to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary had been acceded to; and on that account the Bohemians, shortly after the death of Matthias, rose in revolt, and under the leadership of Count Thurn besieged him in Vienna, until the arrival of an army under General Bouquoi forced them to retreat, and enabled him to proceed to Frankfort to receive the imperial crown. Bohemians, notwithstanding their defeat, chose as their king the elector-palatine Frederick V., son-in-law of James I. of England, and with the assistance of Bethlen Gabor, prince of Transylvania, who revolted against Ferdinand in Hun. gary, virtually inaugurated the long struggle for religious liberty known as the Thirty Years' War. Ferdinand, however, with the support of the Catholic league and the alliance of John George I., elector of Saxony, was able completely to subdue them after a short campaign, and having totally defeated them near Prague, November 8, 1620, he deprived them of their constitutional rights, banished the leading Protestant families, expelled the Reformed preachers and recalled the Jesuits, and by cruel persecutions totally quelled every manifestation of Protes tant belief. But in Hungary he was not so successful as to enable him to put such extreme measures into execution; on the contrary, he thought it prudent to conclude a peace on the 31st December 1621, by which he agreed to cede one half of the country to Bethlen Gabor, and to grant religious toleration to the other half. In Germany fortune was for a time more favourable to the Roman Catholic cause; several of the German princes had entered into a league with Christian IV. of Denmark,' but that monarch was defeated by Ferdinand's general, Wallenstein, and a peace between him and Ferdinand was concluded in 1629. Taking advantage of his opportunity, Ferdinand in the same year passed the famous Edict of Restitution, which enforced the restoration of all German ecclesiastical pro. perty that had passed into other hands since the treaty of Passau in 1552. The full execution of the edict was, however, prevented,―partly by the unwillingness of the Roman Catholic princes to give up the property of which they had becomed possessed, partly by the intrigues of Cardinal Richelieu, who was jealous of the increasing influence of the emperor, but principally through the arrival of Gustavus Adolphus. Uniting with the Protestant princes of Germany, Gustavus inflicted a succession of defeats on Ferdinand, who, having at the urgent representations of the Catholic princes dismissed Wallenstein from the command of the imperial army, possessed no general at all adequate to cope with the genius and energy of the king of Sweden. Gustavus was subsequently joined by the elector of Saxony, and fortune failed to smile on the arms of Ferdinand even after the recall of Wallenstein, who was defeated at the battle of Lützen, 16th November 1632. The victory was dearly bought by the death of the king of Sweden, March 1848 compelled Metternich to resign office, and, the constitution not meeting with the approval of the revolutionists, Ferdinand fled to Innsbruck. At the urgent request of all parties he shortly afterwards returned to Vienna, but on a renewal of the outbreak he left the capital for Olmütz in Moravia, where, feeling himself unfit to cope with the difficulties of government, he was persuaded to abdicate in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph, 2d December 1848. He spent the remainder of his life in retirement, chiefly at Prague in Bohemia, where he died 29th June 1875. but Wallenstein took little advantage of the great loss | tive policy of Francis I. The revolution of the 13th thus sustained by the Protestant cause; and the emperor, learning that he finally meditated treachery, caused him to be assassinated, February 25, 1634. In the same year the imperial army was successful at the battle of Nordlingen, and after this victory the elector of Saxony separated himself from the Swedish alliance and made peace with Ferdinand; but the Swedes continuing the struggle with great determination, and being afterwards joined by France, Ferdinand, when he died on the 15th February 1637, was uncomforted by the hope of any near fulfilment of the purpose expressed in his oath, and attempted by such ruthless persecutions and at such an expense of treasure and of human life. See Khevenhüller, Annales Ferdinandi II.; the various histories of the Thirty Years' War; Ranke, Die Röm. Päpste, vol. ii.; and Hurter, Geschichte Ferdinands II. This last is written from a Roman Catholic standpoint. FERDINAND III. (1608–1657), emperor, the son of the preceding, was born at Gratz, 11th July 1608. He became king of Bohemia in 1625, king of Hungary in 1627, king of the Romans in 1636, and succeeded his father as emperor in 1637. Milder in disposition, less fanatical in his opinions, and somewhat dispirited on account of the repeated defeats inflicted on the German arms by Duke Bernhard and General Baner, he was at an early period of his reign strongly desirous of obtaining peace even at the cost of liberal concessions to the Protestants; but the determination of France and Sweden to humiliate the imperial power prevented negotiations being entered iuto until 1643. Between that date and 1648 fruitless conferences continued to be held, the war meanwhile raging intermittently and with somewhat spent fury. In 1647, however, Ferdinand had guaranteed religious toleration to Hungary, and finally, on October 24, 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, by which was brought to a close a war that, besides the evils inflicted by it on other countries, had desolated the whole of Germany, paralysed its trade, and destroyed more than half its population. By this treaty religious liberty was secured to Germany, although not to Bohemia; France obtained part of Alsace and Lorraine, and the son of Frederick V. got the Upper Palatinate; while Sweden obtained Western Pomerania, and became a member of the German diet. The unity of Germany was at the same time so broken up by concessions granted to the independent princes that with the death of Ferdinand III. the German kingdom may be said to have ceased to exist, until re-established by William I. after the Franco-Prussian war. During the peace negotiations of Westphalia, Ferdinand IV., eldest son of Ferdinand III., was chosen king of the Romans, but he died in 1654. Ferdinand III. died, April 2, 1657, shortly after concluding a treaty with the Poles against Sweden. See Koch, Geschichte des Deutschen Reichs unter Ferdinand III., 1865. FERDINAND I. (1793-1875), emperor of Austria, the eldest son of the emperor Francis I. by his second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI., was born in Vienna, April 19, 1793. He inherited a constitution so weak as to unfit him for the duties of his station, but his amiable and benevolent disposition secured him general respect, and acquired for him the surname of the Good. On the 2d February 1831 he married Princess Anne Caroline, third daughter of Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, but the marriage was without issue. He was crowned nominal sovereign of Hungary under the 'title of Ferdinand V. in 1830, succeeded his father as emperor of Austria on the 2d March 1835, and received the crown of Bohemia in 1836, and that of Lombardy in 1839. During his whole reign the government of Austria was virtually in the hands of Prince Metternich. who continued the conserva FERDINAND I. (1423-1494), king of Naples, the illegitimate son of Alphonso V. of Aragon and I. of Sicily and Naples, was born in 1423. In accordance with his father's will, he succeeded him on the throne of Naples in 1458, but Pope Calixtus III. having refused to recognize him, John of Anjou, desirous to turn to advantage the opportunity of regaining the throne of his ancestors, invaded the country, and inflicted on him a severe defeat, July 7, 1460. Ferdinand fled to Naples accompanied by only twenty cavaliers, but having by certain concessions obtained recognition from Pius II., who about this time succeeded Calixtus on the papal throne, he received through him the aid of the Albanian chief Scanderbeg, and defeated John of Anjou at Troja with great loss, August 18, 1462. In 1480 the Turks captured Otranto from Ferdinand, and massacred the majority of the inhabitants, but in the following year it was retaken. The only other event of importance during his reign was an abortive attempt at revolt on the part of the nobles in 1485, many of whom, notwithstanding that he promised them a general amnesty, were afterwards treacherously murdered by his commands. On account of his refusing to pay to Innocent VIII. the censustax promised by him to Pius II., he was in 1489 excommunicated, but he subsequently gained the favour of Alexander VI. He died 25th January 1494, while Charles VIII. of France was preparing to invade his dominions. Though cruel in the infliction of punishment, and ready without scruple to break his promises when it suited him. Ferdinand generally dealt out to his subjects even-handed justice, favoured the spread of knowledge, and greatly increased the industrial and commercial prosperity of his kingdom. FERDINAND II., king of Naples, grandson of the preceding, and son of Alphonso II., was born probably in 1468. Alphonso finding his tenure of the throne uncertain on account of the general dissatisfaction of his subjects, abdicated in his son's favour in 1495, but notwithstanding this the treason of a party in Naples rendered it impossible to defend the city against the approach of Charles VIII. Ferdinand fled to Ischia; but when the French left Naples, the Neapolitans, irritated by their conduct during the occupation of the city, recalled him; and with the aid of the great general of Ferdinand V. of Spain, Gonzalo de Cordova, he was able completely to rid his state of its invaders shortly before his death on the 7th October 1496. FERDINAND III. of Naples. See FERDINAND V. of Spain. FERDINAND IV. (1751-1825) of Naples, III. of Sicily, and I. of the Two Sicilies, third son of Don Carlos, king of Naples (afterwards Charles III. of Spain), was born in Naples, January 12, 1751. When his father ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, Ferdinand, in accordance with the treaties which forbade the union of the two crowns, succeeded him on the throne of Naples, under a regency of which Bernardo Tanucci was the chief. On account of the ambitious purposes of Tanucci, who wished to retain the government of the kingdom as much as possible in his own hands, the education of the young king was very much neglected, while no restraint was put upon his love of pleasure, or his excessive preference for athletic exercises and outdoor sports. His minority ended on the 12th January 1767, and in 1768 he married Maria Caroline, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. According to the marriage contract the queen after the birth of her first son was to have a voice in the councils of state; and she was not backward to make use of this opportunity of political influence. Beautiful, clever, and ambitious, and inheriting many of the masculine characteristics of her mother, she soon ousted Tanucci both from the favour of the king and from all but nominal authority in the state; and when he systematically attempted to frustrate her purposes, he was finally in 1777 dismissed from his office. The Englishman Sir John Acton was shortly after this appointed admiral of the Neapolitan fleet, and succeeded so completely in winning the favour of both queen and court, that he was speedily promoted to be minister of war, and then of foreign affairs. Under his influence Spain lost her ascendency in Neapolitan politics, and an intimate connexion was formed with Austria and England. In 1793 Ferdinand joined the coalition against France, and although he made peace with France in 1796, he took advantage of the absence of Napoleon in Egypt to renew the war in 1798. His army occupied Rome for a short time, but after the defeat of some of its divisions by the French, Ferdinand without attempting to defend Naples, to which he had fled panic-stricken, escaped on board the English fleet under Admiral Nelson, and went to Palermo; and the French, entering the city after a furious but undisciplined resistance by the lazzaroni, established with the aid of the citizens and nobles the "Parthenopean Republic." When, six weeks after this, the defeat of their arms in the north of Italy compelled the French to abandon Naples, Ferdinand was restored by a Calabrian army under Cardinal Ruffo; and with the connivance of Admiral Nelson a reign of terror was inaugurated, which continued until the success of the French arms in 1801 induced Ferdinand to sign a treaty whereby, besides other concessions, he promised to grant an amnesty to political offenders, and also agreed to permit French troops to occupy his territories. But when war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, he thought the opportunity favourable for throwing off the French domination, and prompted by Caroline permitted 13,000 Russian and English troops to land at Naples. Scarcely had he done so, when the victory of Austerlitz enabled Napoleon to despatch an army against him. Ferdi nand with his usual precipitation fled from his capital, leaving Caroline to negotiate terms with the enemy, but as Napoleon refused all further compromise with the house of Bourbon she was compelled to follow her husband into Sicily. On March 30, 1806, Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Naples and Sicily; but Ferdinand with the aid of England continued to reign over the latter kingdom. After the dethronement in 1815 of Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, Ferdinand was recalled to his capital, and on December 12, 1816, he united his two states into one, and assumed the title of king of the Two Sicilies. As a condition of his recall he had sworn to grant a constitution, but no sooner did he find himself secure from external interference than he abolished it; and although a revolution compelled him again in 1820 to give to it a nominal assent, he was shortly afterwards able, with the help of an Austrian army, to break his promises with impunity, and by means of an elaborate system of espionage and the unscrupulous arrest and punishment of all suspected persons to re-establish his despotism in a more vigorous form than ever. He died 4th January 1825. See Botta, Storia d'Italia dal 1789 al 1814; Coletta, Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 sino al 1825, 2 vols., 1834, English translation, 1858; Sketch of Popular Tumults, 1887; and Mémoires du Général Pepe, 1847. FERDINAND IL (1810-1859), king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding, and son of Francis I., was born at Palermo, January 12, 1810. On succeeding his father in 1830, he published an edict in which he promised to "give his most anxious attention to the impartial administration of justice," to reform the finances, and to "use every effort to heal the wounds which had afflicted the kingdom for so many years; " but these promises seem to have been meant only to lull discontent to sleep, for while the existing burden of taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption began gradually to invade all departments of the administration, and an absolutism was finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand, was naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious, and possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his kingdom in a high state of efficiency, he made little account of the wishes or welfare of his subjects, and did not deem it of much importance to be on good terms either with them or with foreign states. In 1832 he married Christina, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, and shortly after her death in 1836 he took for a second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Archduke Charles of Austria. After his Austrian alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested by abortive attempts at insurrection in 1837, 1841, 1844, and 1847, and in 1848 by a general rising in Sicily, on account of which the king judged it prudont to promise a constitution. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should be taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances began to occur in the streets of Naples; and the king, making these the excuse for withdrawing his promise, on the 13th March 1849 dissolved the national parliament. The efforts at revolt were renewed in Sicily, but were speedily quelled, chiefly by the bombardment of the principal cities of the state, an expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of "Bomba" During the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented all serious manifestations of insubordination among his subjects. In 1851 the poli tical prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr Gladstone to number 13,000, and so great was the scandal created by the rule of terror which prevailed that in 1856 France and England, though vainly, made diplomatic representations to induce a mitigation of its rigour and the proclamation of a general amnesty. An attempt was made to assassinate Ferdinand in 1857. He died May 22, 1859. See Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Naples and Sicily, 1848-49, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 4th May 1849; Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, by Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 1st. ed. 1851 (an edition published in 1852, and the subsequent editions, contain an Examination of the Official Reply of the Neapolitan Government); supplementary chapter to the English translation of Coletta's History of Naples; and Dawburn, Naples and King Ferdinand, 1858. FERDINAND I. of Portugal (1345-1383), sometimes referred to as el Gentil (the Gentleman), son of Pedro I. of Portugal (who is not to be confounded with his Castilian contemporary Pedro the Cruel), succeeded his father in 1367. On the death of Pedro of Castilo in 1369, Ferdinand, as great-grandson of Sancho IV. by the female line, laid claim to the vacant throne, for which the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and afterwards the duke of Lancaster (married in 1370 to Constance, the eldest daughter of Pedro), also became competitors. Meanwhile Henry of Trastamara, the brother (illegitimate) and conqueror of Pedro, had assumed the crown and taken the field. After one or two indecisive campaigus, all parties were ready to accept the mediation of Pope Gregory XI. The conditions of the treaty, ratified in 1371, included a marriage between |